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Breaking up if Meetings get too Large

Breaking up is hard to do. Unfortunately it needs to happen when your regular meeting attendance exceeds the limits at which an inclusive discussion can take place. Having this problem is usually a good thing. It means people are interested in the content of your meetings and events. Once you start to get more than about 30 people at your discussion meetings, it makes sense to divide up into three or more groups. This will allow people who are new to the group to feel more comfortable contributing to the conversation in a more intimate environment. Breaking up into small groups also creates an atmosphere conducive to meeting people and making new friends.

Tips and Strategies:

At discussion meetings that exceed 30 people, split up into groups of 7-10.

At events such as campus tabling and chalkings, split up into teams to cover your whole campus.

Make sure established members are interspersed with new attendees.

If your discussion meetings become chaotic; use strategies such as having a moderator, raising your hand to speak, or passing the "speaking banana" to designate who has the floor.

When it gets too noisy, relocate portions of your group to a different room or hallway to continue conversation.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the entire group should reform to talk about the issues that came up in each sub-group respectively.